Before we get started, let me convey the Bialosky Rule: The more protests and the more screaming and yelling, the better Trump is doing.
Hysteria reigned last weekend over President Trump’s executive order (EO) restricting travelers from seven countries (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Somalia). These countries are located in the Middle East and North Africa. There are a few aspects of this executive order that need to be reviewed.
This is not an attack against Muslim countries. You all know that this is branding by the Left, but not real. There are 46 other majority Muslim countries that were not included in the EO. You probably also know that these countries were designated by the prior presidential administration as countries “of concern.”
Let’s examine why these countries are considered Muslim countries. Many of them had substantial Jewish populations, but those Jews left in the past 50 to 70 years -- partially because of the creation of Israel and partially to save their lives. A large Iranian-Jewish population settled in America. There are only an estimated 40 Jews left in Yemen. An estimated 900,000 to 1 million Jews were run out of these countries. Would any Jew relocate to these seven countries today? No. Yet many liberal Jews were vociferous in defending people coming from these countries despite the radical anti-Semitism emanating from them.
Then there is the treatment of Christians in these countries. If you review the history of how Christians have been abused in these countries, they followed the Jews out the door. You may not remember all the instances so take some time to review how often Christians have been murdered in these countries for the sin of being Christians.
Unlike most other countries which have Muslim majorities, these countries are Muslim countries because they have run out or killed people of the other major religions in the area. You can put a sign out stating “Jews and Christians not welcome.” Yet I am not aware of anyone from these countries marching to stop the actions against Jews or Christians. Very few if any coming to the U.S. from these countries ever cared to act to protect Jews or Christians.
Supposedly now people coming from these nations as refugees have been properly vetted despite the Intelligence Community telling us last year they are unable to assure us of that. That is because these countries are all failed states except for Iran (and that one speaks for itself). You cannot get birth certificates for these people. We know nothing about these refugees other than what they tell us.
Take a look at the unrest over the weekend. There are a lot of questions about the people who arrived here and how they were treated. There were questions about why we would stop people who have green cards. If you are not familiar with that, these are immigrants who legally went through a process to gain the right to work here, usually with the idea they may further the process to become citizens.
Let’s forget about the fact that the number of people questioned was a small number of the approximately 500,000 people entering the country from foreign lands in the first 72 hours. A little over 1,000 people who arrived here were questioned and provided waivers to come into our country, while 721 were deferred from coming here before they got on a plane. This is less than .2% of the arrivals and most were held for a very short time. Let’s also forget that the crowds out protesting were organized by the same people who were at the Women’s March. It was surprising they were all not out there wearing their pink hats. As Secretary Kelly stated, his people knew about the EO, executed the EO and stated “The only chaos they knew of was going on in other parts of the airport.”
Let’s talk about travel. If you are a regular reader, you know my wife and I are avid world travelers. We sadly have only been to somewhere north of 50 countries. My wife created a business with a blog (Travel with Teri B.) about our travels. We have a list of places to go and have trips planned out into future years. I also encourage my readers to travel because it is the best way to understand the world.
I can say without equivocation that not one of these countries is on our travel plans. Some destinations have interesting history such as Iraq, Iran and Yemen. The only thing I am familiar with that comes out of Somalia is pirates. Do you want to know why we have no plans to travel to these countries? It is because we are not nuts. Plain and simple. They are highly dangerous places. They have many dangerous people living in them. Their governments are either failed or totally belligerent to the civilized world.
Thus, my question would be why do we not have established procedures to intensively screen anyone coming from these countries whether they are American citizens, legal residents or just foreign visitors? Why would anyone visit there? I know some are saying that they went there to visit family. That does not matter to me. These countries do not have stable governments except for maybe Iran, and think of the wonderful people running that country.
I told my brother that if he went to any one of these countries, I would want to know why. I want to know exactly what he did, with whom he met, where he stayed, where he ate, and what he ate. You mean to tell us that under the prior administration you could come and go to these countries without extensive interrogation upon reentry? If that is not proof positive that we needed to revamp our border enforcement what else do you need to know?
Here are some questions for those who erupted over the weekend over the EO travel ban: 1) Would you travel to any of these countries? 2) Would you send a child to visit any of these countries? 3) Do you have concerns about the fact that these countries have either chased out or killed virtually every Jew or Christian from the country? 4) If you are so gung ho for our country to take in refugees from these countries, are you willing to take one of those refugees into your home?
We now have reality about the issue of the travel ban from these seven countries which are certainly among the most dangerous and lawless countries in the world. The only question is why are not a few more countries on the list?